Barnes & Noble’s New Nook Is Lighter and Softer

The company that gave us a place to study and read books for free in the 1990s is back with an updated e-reader.

The new $119 Nook Simple Touch GlowLight keeps up with its contemporaries with an updated display. But it also goes one step further when it comes to refreshing pages and making the device easier to hold.

Specifically, the updated e-reader won’t refresh the page to remove artifacts unless it encounters an image. Flip through as many pages as you want and the tell-tale flash of an e-reader cleaning up e-ink artifacts never makes itself known. The artifacts just don’t appear, according to Barnes & Noble.

Barnes and Noble’s COO Mahesh Verrina told WIRED that the company was able to eliminate page flashing by tweaking its software and the chemical process of refreshing by using E-Ink’s Regal waveform technology. The display buffering and the background chemical process are basically staggered (i.e., done at different pace) so you don’t see that ghosting and flashing,” Verrina said.

That display is also more durable, according to Barnes & Noble, and the GlowLight technology has been updated to more evenly disperse lighting. With only limited access to the e-reader, the lighting did seem like an improvement over the previous GlowLight. As for durability, until I’m allowed to throw one across the room, I’ll hold off on speculating on actual toughness.

But while the tougher display is supposed to weather the harsh world of reading on the bus and the beach, the case itself has softened up. A gray silicon trim feels almost rubbery and adds more grip when held. At 175 grams, it’s also 15 percent lighter than the Kindle Paperwhite, which weighs in at 213 grams.

The bookseller has also updated its on-device store with curated lists based on its human booksellers combined with backend book data. And while it can’t compete with the enormous Amazon ecosystem, it hopes that its brick and mortar stores with actual people helping you set up the device is a more compelling draw for anyone new to the e-reader world.

Plus, the stores have coffee and comfy seats. Something that’ll cost more on Amazon.